Thread: ECT
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Old 17-10-2017, 05:24 PM   #2
Horizon
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: USA
I am currently:

I had ECT when I was 18, and again when I was 22.
Anesthesia made me feel floaty and dizy and it took me longer than expected to actually go under. That was when I was 18. (But I had an undiagnosed and underlying balance disorder, so that may have contributed to the dizziness).

When I was 22, it seemed to go better: I didn't even know it had hit me.

You'll feel groggy when you wake up, but a nurse will be there to reorient you and give you something to drink, etc. I think the longest part is the waiting for your turn to have the procedure and then waking up enough to be released to your home (with someone else driving you, of course).

You might feel sluggish and uncoordinated, might have a headache, stuff like that, the day of.
Some short term memory loss is common...I never stuck with ECT for long because of my fear of anesthesia (again, my experience with anesthesia is apparently not common) so I don't know if memory loss increases the longer you have ECT.

Then again, my normal memory is spotty, but I didn't notice anything too bad. When I had ECT when I was 18, as soon as I woke back up, I remembered the nurse's name and stuff like that and staff were confused by how I remembered all that.

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